1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a distributed switching system in which programmable multimedia controllers and other devices may have shared access to data streams originating from any of the interconnected controllers and devices.
2. Background Information
The above-referenced related applications disclose a programmable multimedia controller as well as a wide variety of diverse, multimedia services that such a controller may be programmed to perform. In considering how much switching capacity to include in a single controller, there are numerous tradeoffs among performance, software development cost and complexity, product cost and physical size, and expandability. While a single large, central switch has its advantages, that approach tends to make the finished product larger and to significantly increase the base cost, possibly to the extent of undesirably limiting the market. A single large, central switch may also negatively impact add on sales because the incremental cost of additional capacity is high.
One way to address the cost and size issues is to select a smaller, less expensive switch. However, in order to provide the desired switching capacity as well as expandability, it will likely be necessary to connect multiple controllers together. Consequently, the smaller switch approach tends to require the addition of some type of interconnection or networking mechanism as well as development of more complex control software to coordinate the operations of multiple controllers.